The Return Contingency
by Wolf Maid
Summary: An old friend of Sheldon's needs help, but he and his team have brought trouble with them... TBBT AU S4, SGA AU S3ish diverges before The Return . BBT is Sheldon/Penny, SGA is gen.
1. Part 1

**Title:** The Return Contingency (1/5?)  
**Rating**: PG-13  
**Word Count:** 1710 for this part.  
**Disclaimer:** Neither TBBT nor SGA are mine.  
**Summary:** TBBT AU S4, SGA AU S3ish (diverges before The Return, Sunday never happens)  
An old friend of Sheldon's needs help, but he and his team have brought trouble with them... (Sheldon/Penny)

AN: This should be 5 chapters, and it's Sheldon/Penny for BBT, gen for SGA.

./.

**...The Return Contingency - Part 1...**

**./.**

At 6:32pm on a Thursday night, there's a knock the apartment door. Penny, who is sitting cross-legged on the couch eating an overly greasy slice of pizza, hears it first—probably because she isn't involved in the discussion surrounding Leonard's opened computer, three dismantled hard drives, and far too many cords for Penny to keep track of.

The discussion is really more of an argument at this point, and Howard has begun spraying Leonard with the canister of compressed air as Sheldon's voice gets higher and Raj gestures furiously.

So when Penny hears the knock, rather than trying to cut in she merely stands, her cotton shorts hugging her thighs and her tanktop riding up her back a little as she walks to the door, pizza in one hand and an amused smirk firmly on her face.

When she opens the door, however, the smirk slides off into a frown, because there are four men and one woman standing on the other side, in jeans and dark shirts and identical frowns. The man in the middle steps forward, mouth opening, before the taller (hot) one grabs his arm.

"Hello Ma'am," he says, "This wouldn't happen to be where Dr. Sheldon Cooper lives?" and Penny realizes that the sound behind her has fallen off, so she glances back and sees her four boys staring at her in confusion.

Penny steps closer to the open door, letting her should and right foot brace it as she looks at them, irrationally suspicious by their presence.

"Who are you?" she asks, registering the fact that her voice has gone sharp but unwilling to do anything about it. Except she can feel warm breath on her hair, can feel him standing behind her.

"Dr. McKay," Sheldon says, even tone unable to hide his astonishment. "What are you doing here?"

McKay opens his mouth, but the taller man squeezes the arm still in his hand. "Time for catch-up later, Rodney," he says. "We've got a situation."

"John," the woman says, a note of warning in her voice, "We'll have to explain some, we can't just—"

"It's been a long time, Dr. Cooper," Rodney cuts in, the side of his mouth quirking up.

She can feel the way Sheldon's body is radiating tension from behind her, but before she can step in and—_what? Who are these people?_—he clears his throat.

"Please, come in," he says, his left arm half-encircling Penny's waist to draw her backwards into the room. "This is Penny, and they—" he nods his head towards the still silent men, "Are Leonard, Howard, and Raj." At their names they seem to start, and come closer to the five who've now entered the room—the short man keeping farther back, the woman, Rodney, and John in the front, the last man standing to the side, closer to the window.

"I'm—" the woman starts, but John clears his throat. She throws him a glare. "I'm _Elizabeth_," she says. "I'm afraid we're in a bit of a situation, and we're going to need your help, Dr. Cooper."

Sheldon, who Penny realizes still hasn't let her go, tugs her even closer to him, so she can feel his body tense behind hers, hear his breath half-shudder in his ears. She wants to turn and see his face, wants to see why he's reacting so extremely, but she's unwilling to pull away from him when he's reaching out to her.

"Rodney," he says, voice unsteady, "I told you, I turned you down four years ago, I _told_ you I wasn't interested, I work in _theory_, and you told me—you told me—"

"I'm sorry, Sheldon," Rodney says, stepping forward, his blue eyes worried, "There's been an…incident. We won't—"

"Who are you?" Leonard cuts in, frowning, and John shoots him an annoyed look.

"Damnit, McKay, you know we're being followed, you said—"

"_What's going on?"_ Leonard snaps.

"Not now," Sheldon says, waving a hand dismissively, and Leonard crosses his arms.

"This is my apartment, too, and I _demand_—"

"There's a black van outside," the fifth man interrupts, a strong Scottish accent highlighting the urgency in his voice. John curses.

"Not here," he says, "We've got to go _now_, Elizabeth, the elevator is broken and there's only the one staircase, we'll be pinned up here."

"Sheldon has a rope ladder," Penny cuts in, instincts kicking in from high school when they'd party out in dark fields and raise hell, although she's pretty sure there's something a bit more serious at work now. "He bought a couple of them and tied them together so they'll reach all the way down."

"I like to be prepared," Sheldon says, voice practically hoarse.

"Sheldon," Rodney says, "This is important—you know me, you know I wouldn't come here if it wasn't."

"I'm not coming with you," he says, "I—"

"Well lad, ye'll have to leave here, at the verra least," the Scot says, "They've followed us 'cross half the country, we'll hafta find another—"

"My house," Howard says out of nowhere. Raj, wide-eyed, starts to whisper something in his ear but Howard waves him off. "They'll never think to look there, we can talk about what's going on, just—"

"You don't even know who _they_ are!" Leonard yells. "What's going on?"

"Fine," Elizabeth nods.

Penny grabs Sheldon's hand, tugs him to the Emergency Chest in the corner, heartbeat deafening as he lets himself get dragged along. "Sheldon?" she asks as she starts digging frantically. He leans over her and expertly pulls out the ridiculously thick bundle of rope.

"Not now, Penny," he says, jaw clenching, "There doesn't appear to be time."

It's Sheldon, of course, that has them frantic and panicking, that has Howard volunteering his home to strangers and Raj wide-eyed with fear, it's Sheldon and his almost-level voice, the way he's practically trembling with tension, the way he knows something of what's going on and it terrifies him in a way nothing else has even shaken him.

John grabs the rope ladder and sends it spiraling down before pulling a gun from the back of his waistband. Rodney follows suit, and although the gun looks awkward in his hands John gives him an affectionate smile.

"Carson, go first and try to secure the area—or at least shout out a warning, hmm?" he smirks. With a scowl the Scot eases himself out the window and starts down. "Radek, you and the other three go down next," he says, sizing up Penny with a glance.

"I'm not climbing out of my window without someone telling me what's going on!" Leonard half-yells, as Radek tries to help Raj and Howard out the window. Howard is grinning like an idiot while Raj looks terrified, and Penny fights the urge to shake her head as she realizes how out-of-tune Leonard has been with everyone else since they broke up almost a year ago. _Can he really not feel it?_

John steps closer to Leonard, hazel eyes dark as he looks him up and down. "There are men who are coming to kidnap, interrogate, torture and probably kill everyone who is in this apartment," he says. "Get out the window." Leonard wavers for half a second, sending a worried look at Penny before following Radek out.

Now only Elizabeth, John, Rodney, Penny and Sheldon are standing in the apartment. John looks at them, tense. "You're scared of heights," he says, and Sheldon nods, hand tightening around Penny's. "You're going to have to do this," he says, and Elizabeth and Rodney exchange worried looks.

"Rationally," Sheldon starts, and then stops abruptly, half-biting off the word. John looks at Penny.

"Go," he says, but she shakes her head, stepping closer to Sheldon.

"Penny," Sheldon says, but she lets her shoulder bump into his and he falls silent. There's yelling from downstairs, and John's face is grim.

"Liz, you and Rodney go," he says.

"John—"

"_Go_," he says, unequivocal. "I'll be down in a minute, I promise," he adds, his voice softening a touch as he looks at her.

There are heavy boot steps on the stairs as Rodney and Elizabeth start down the ladder and John deadbolts the door.

"You have to do this," he says when he turns back towards them. "You _can_ do this," he says. Next to her, Sheldon swallows thickly.

"Hey," she says, turning towards him, blocking out the insanity of the moment, the gun in John's hands, the yell of someone down below. His eyes are darting around, so she grabs his face in her hands. "Hey," she says. "Let's do this."

He stares at her, silent, for a long moment—too long, _terrifyingly _too long—and then he nods, shaky at best, and John practically shoves them towards the window, eyes on the door as they hear the first knock. _"Go!_" he whispers, and Penny and Sheldon start down, he going slowly, _agonizingly_ slowly, and they're so far above, and John moves away from the window, and they slowly descend.

They make it down. They _all_ make it down, although John half-falls down most of the way, letting himself slide and then catching himself more than anything, far more worried about the people at the door than anything else.

Penny somehow ends up driving, something about _inconspicuous cars_ and _followed us here_, and Sheldon is in the passenger seat with Howard, Raj, and Carson crammed into the backseat.

"What's going on?" she asks, driving too fast over speed bumps and taking corners without slowing down. It's yet another mark of how much Sheldon is freaking out about other matters that he doesn't protest audibly, although his knuckles are white around his seatbelt.

"Rodney…when I was a visiting Professor in Germany, Rodney was there as well. He was almost ten years my senior, but he didn't…he didn't treat me as if…" Sheldon cuts himself off, although Carson is leaning forward, listening, obviously intrigued.

"He wanted ye for his science team," Carson says, and Sheldon shrugs, not turning around.

"I couldn't accept his offer," he says.

"Ah," Carson says. "Well, unfortunately, circumstances have changed."

Sheldon twitches. Raj leans over and whispers into Howard's ear.

"That's quite a good question, Raj," Howard says, before turning to face Carson. "Just what the hell _is_ going on?"

./.

_...tbc..._


	2. Part 2

**Title:** The Return Contingency (2/5?)  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Word Count:** 1793 for this part.  
**Disclaimer:** Neither TBBT nor SGA are mine.  
**Summary:** TBBT AU S4, SGA AU S3ish (diverges before The Return, Sunday never happens)  
An old friend of Sheldon's needs help, but he and his team have brought trouble with them... Sheldon/Penny

Man, using everyone's first names in the SGA fandom is incredibly weird, but I figured the BBT people would find it natural.

./.

**...TRC Part 2...**

./.

At 7:59pm, all ten of them are crammed into Howard's bedroom. Penny's been waiting for him to make an unfortunate comment, but either the fact that there are only two women or merely the seriousness of the situation has kept him mostly quiet so far.

Raj, on the other hand, is holding a beer and talking to a laughing Carson. (_"I don't know if it's really the moment for alcohol," Elizabeth had said, and Penny had winced. "He…ah…can't talk in front of women unless he's drunk." Elizabeth had sighed. "Another scientist," she'd said, and Penny'd smirked._)

Leonard, who'd been packed into his car with the strangers, seems oddly cowed and is sulking in the corner.

"Howard!!" his mother yells, and Howard closes his eyes, obviously mortified.

"Yeah, Mom?" he screams back.

"Do your little friends want some snacks?"

"Oh, that'd be great!" Rodney cuts in. "But nothing with lemons, I'm allergic to lemons."

"Sure, Mom," Howard shouts.

"But no lemons!" Rodney adds with a yell. John is full-out smirking while Elizabeth rolls her eyes.

"Perhaps we should explain now?" Radek says, pushing his glasses up on his nose and looking slightly annoyed, as well as very bedraggled. Whatever they're all involved in, Radek does not seem to approve, Penny thinks.

Sheldon, who's sitting rather stiffly on Howard's desk chair, lifts a cool eyebrow at Rodney. "Perhaps you _should_explain why you've hunted me down after all this time, Dr. McKay," he says, voice tight. Rodney winces and sits down on the bed behind him as everyone else quiets down and looks at the unfolding situation.

"This is top secret, of course," he says.

Sheldon opens his mouth with a scowl at about the same time as John says, "I think we're a _bit_ past that, Rodney. Just spit it out."

The two of them share a look, and then with a shrug Rodney says, "Atlantis was taken over. We need you to help us take it back."

Which is, of course, not nearly enough information, and Radek sits down on the bed next to Rodney, reflexively wrinkling his nose. "You know of Atlantis?" he asks, and Sheldon says yes at the same time Leonard snorts no. Radek nods and then shakes his head with a sigh. "Simply put, there is an organization—The Trust. They have infiltrated the SGC—"

"The SGC?" Howard cuts in, now perched on the edge of his desk in what little room remains around the speakers, computer, externals and various other scattered equipment. "What's the SGC?"

With a sigh Elizabeth pushes away from the wall in full-lecture mode and John discreetly shares a smile with Carson. "The SGC stands for Stargate Command, a US military base," she says. "Stargate's are devices the military uses to travel from one planet to another. Atlantis is a base on another planet in another galaxy.

"The Trust, which is in effect a terrorist organization that branched off from one of our own government agencies, infiltrated the SGC, planted people aboard one of our spaceships, and when that spaceship had arrived in the Pegasus Galaxy instituted a lockdown of the SGC. In the 45 minutes of that lockdown, the Trust sent through emergency evacuation orders, following our own protocols, and with Destiny hovering in our orbit backing them up, we were forced to evacuate the city and return to Earth. Communications were jammed, and by the time we realized what had occurred and helped take back control, it was too late."

Howard is staring at her, wide-eyed. Raj tilts back his beer, blinking. It goes down the wrong way and he starts coughing while Carson pounds him on the back. Leonard is looking around in disbelief. But Sheldon, oh Penny's looking at Sheldon, and Sheldon's eyes are closed, his fingers too tight around the armrests of the chair, his mouth pinched.

"Why are you _here,_ Rodney?" he asks, blue eyes flaring open, and Rodney's chin tilts up a little, something like determination and regret flickering across his face.

"The SGC is trying to keep us out of the loop. They're discussing attempting to destroy the city rather than let the Trust remain in control. We aren't going to let that happen."

"I can't help you," Sheldon says, standing up and moving towards the door, but Penny catches his arm. His eyes meet hers, and she shakes her head minutely. He pauses. Inhales. Exhales. "This is ridiculous," he says. "Penny, it's ridiculous."

"It _is_ ridiculous," Leonard growls, standing up. "You can't honestly expect us to believe this, can you?"

John smirks. "It _is_ a little out there, I know," he says. "But remember that little chat we had in the car?"

"I'm not going to be threatened into—"

"Another galaxy?" Howard asks, wide-eyed, and Rodney sighs before tossing John a small round object.

"Light her up," he says, and John grins as Howard lunges to his feet—

The device lights up and then lifts off of John's hands to hover in the air, turning slowly. A slow blink from John and an array of stars appear in three-dimensional beauty around them, the object still hovering carefree above John's hands.

Rodney starts pointing and discussing star systems, but Howard has quite obviously tuned him out as he looks at the spinning object and starts asking John quiet questions. Raj is looking less shell-shocked and has stopped coughing, and is talking to Carson, and Radek is appearing to be quite firm with Leonard.

Penny grabs Sheldon's hand and pulls him backwards into Howard's bathroom, and it's a sign of the extremity of the situation that he follows her unprotesting.

"Talk to me," she says. "This is real, isn't it?"

Sheldon's fingers interlace and then pull apart before wandering back to twist together fruitlessly. His mouth, on the other hand, is a firm unmoving line.

"Sheldon?" she presses, and his darting eyes slow down and slide over to meet hers.

"Rodney asked me to be a member of the science team that went to Atlantis," he says, voice soft. "He had me sign a non-disclosure agreement and flew me out to Antarctica and showed me…_Penny_…" he breathes out, and the sheer, breath-taking _wonder_ in his voice is enough for her to know.

"You didn't go," she says, because out of all the ridiculous things that have happened and that she's heard in the last several hours, this is for some reason the strangest.

"Penny," Sheldon says. One word that conveys his doubt and insecurities and irritation and fear, things he tries to lock away on a daily basis, parts of himself he doesn't like to share. "Could you see me there?"

The answer is obvious to her, if not to him—Sheldon, her man of science, who has forced himself beyond his boundaries for her when she needed it, but maybe that's why, maybe he couldn't force himself past them for only his sake. Still, she says "Yes" without hesitation, her hands pulling his away from their fidgeting, her pulse steady just below her skin.

He opens his mouth, closes it, frowns, and then roundly changes the subject. "There are strange men in my apartment," he says, words laced with irritation and indignation, and she can't quite swallow the laugh in time.

There's a quick rap on the door and then Elizabeth opens the door and leans in. "There's food, if you want any," she says. "Also, your friend's mother is trying to hit on Carson. You really ought to see this," she smirks.

From the other room they can hear Raj laughing, Howard's voice pitching progressively higher, and even Leonard's voice sounds amused. Penny looks up at Sheldon and he nods.

"You'll hear them out, at least?" she asks, and he looks down at where his hands are still held in her grasp.

"My apartment is being ransacked, and we are trapped in Howard's room with men who are undoubtedly masked coming after us. I haven't really a choice in the matter, have I?"

"Sheldon—" she says, and he shakes his head.

"I will not make promises I may not be able to keep, Penny," he says, pulling her back toward the bedroom. "I'll do what I am able."

She smiles. "Beyond the brains," she says, "You're capable of more than you think you are."

Howard has practically shoved his mother back into the hallway, so when Penny and Sheldon reenter the room they seem his standing in front of the door, red-faced and holding a tray of sandwiches. Across the way, a similarly red Carson is getting ragged on by an amused John and Rodney and a flat-out cackling Raj. Leonard and Radek are smirking with each other, and Penny feels a pang of relief that he's finally settled down.

Rodney looks up, meets Sheldon's eyes, winces slightly and then in a completely unexpected moment steps forward and grabs Sheldon in a hug.

The entire room goes silent. John is gaping. Raj keeps poking Carson insistently. Penny is trying not to grin, and Elizabeth doesn't even appear to be trying.

"It's good to see you," Penny hears Rodney mumble. "I should've said that first."

There's an almost too-long beat and then Sheldon's left arm snakes up to grab Rodney back. "Likewise," he says.

Penny locks her knees to fight against suddenly unsteady legs, and then Rodney is suddenly three feet from Sheldon and they're in full on technobabble mode.

And as much as she's seen this with the boys, she can tell that this is different, that Rodney's mind is rocketing around just as fast as Sheldon's, that they're keeping up with each other effortlessly and with obvious enjoyment.

Terms and equations and _hell knows what else_ are slung around too fast for her to follow, but Sheldon's right hand still hasn't let go of hers, so she stays where she is.

And then there's the briefest lull in the conversation, and Leonard interjects something, and Sheldon shoots him a look of surprise and then spares him a nod, and Radek and Raj and Howard step tentatively forward while John shifts and pretends to look bored. Penny squeezes Sheldon's hand and slips away.

Carson shares an understanding smile with her. "I cannae follow them when thaire like this," he says, and Elizabeth drops on the bed beside Penny.

"It's usually best they get it out of their system before we start planning," she says with a wry smile and a tilt of her head that Carson obviously agrees with from past experience.

Penny nods vaguely and then with a horrified expression darts up. "_Ohmigod!_ she chokes out. "I was just sitting on_Howard's_ bed!"

Howard grins at her, eyebrows lecherous, and Elizabeth gets up warily.

"Maybe I'll just stand."

_…tbc…_


End file.
